What's your "mapping style"?

[snapshot]

Needs more FIRBLU

 

I never really thought about this, I just make whatever comes up in my mind, what's the word for varied locations? Volcanic Temple, Seaside Factory, Snowy Region, Matrix-like level, Egyptian ruins in Desert, Underwater Tomb, Airborne Shrine...etc. I do try to break up the monotony by giving each level its own identity and central gimmick, quicksand, slippery floors, moving platforms...etc

Edited March 30, 2021 by sluggard

[SilverMiner]

As the time goes, I'm losing my old mapping style :(

[SilentD00mer]

I tend to make techbase maps. I avoid to use crushers and pain elementals in my maps. I make the secrets hard to find, but they are not so important to finish the map. My maps tend to be more "compact", but I do larger rooms when I want to make a trap, so the player can always use his movement as an option to escape.

[LordEntr0py]

4 hours ago, magicsofa said:

Make sure you have "open doors" checked... and be careful with lifts, or moving floors and ceilings which can reveal even more visplanes to the player. It really sucks to put lots of work into an area only to realize the lift down to it crashes the game...

Actually... That's an oddity in my style -

 

I use regular doors only rarely, and generally stick to ones that stay open. The door mechanics have always felt a bit clunky to me.

[DMPhobos]

It's hard to self describe your own mapping style, a lot of mappers just go and build whatever they had in mind and a lot of those distinctive things that mark the mapper style are subconscious. It would be easier to describe other mappers you're familiar with than describing your own style hehe

I don't set out to make maps on a certain style (all i set out to do is make maps that i find fun to play myself), tho i do put emphasis on layout navigation and interconnected parts to encourage incidental combat which i guess leads to my maps look a certain way. Based on what other people have commented about my own mapping, building maps with a distinctive layout look along with 'clean texturing' seems to be my style

[Jacek Bourne]

Set-piece Slaughter. I may experiment with incidental combat.

[NaMcOJR]

Being a software developer, i like to play around with ACS and have the maps do things based on that. Puzzles, tricks, etc.

 

I also like detail and hate to give everything away "just like that", so there will be plenty of secrets and some will be exactly that: Well kept secrets along with some thought on "how the hell do i get through this?".

 

None of my maps are easy, well, maybe the first one i made, but none is also unfinishable or ridiculously difficult (i mean, _I_ can finish them...).

Edited March 30, 2021 by NaMcOJR

[Remilia Scarlet]

Hmm... from a design aspect...

• Point lights instead of sector lighting
• few wide open areas (i.e. Industrial Zone)
• spawning monsters, everywhere
• pillars/columns for flow
• MISSING FLOOR PANELS/BRICKS
• No MIDIs in sight
• Floor grates you can see through
• Very few curves (I like a blockier look)
• Boss fights
• Super-hurty lava like in Quake

Speaking of floor panels... I had an idea for a joke level where you're the Doomguy and you're on a mission to liberate all the floor panels from Hell that demons have stolen over the years.

[Zanieon]

I like to call my techbase style as Industron because obvious reasons.

 

Currently my main style is being the Quake 3 Tech-gothic thing due to my longest in-development total conversion, anyways both styles shares common elements like the ones Remilia described hers:

• Full dynamically lit map, almost no sector lighting
• Huge hallways and big rooms (does not always imply slaughter however)
• Sometimes missing floor or ceiling tiles, sometimes broken walls too
• A fuckton of ambient sounds for full immersion
• Ogg music because i just got tired of MIDI instruments (nothing against MIDI themselves, just the playback)
• Plenty scripted elements (not for the bad though)

 

 

[Obsidian]

I AM A GIMMICK THAT WALKS LIKE A MAN

 

There we go, that's my mapping style.

[Archanhell]

To be honest I do not know myself, my mind is just enormous and I make what I imagine depending on the theme, the music and other factors so, I can not really say what my style is.

However, because I like lovecraftian and cosmic horror, I like to put some elements of this on my maps.

Entering the Impending Chaos's Map01 had that part where all the map twisted and became a fleshy version of itself, for example.

Closed maps with many details and gimmick elements, or big open maps with many places to explore, a story to tell and just overall be comfortable.

That is all I know.

 

I still want to know though, how to make floor grates or the cool-looking light columns that come from either an artificial light source, or somewhere natural on the map.

(please help.)

[purist]

My style is a constant tug of war between allowing the player to move freely and encouraging the player to move fast.

[SlayerOGames666]

I love ACS. Bad at making linear sequences. Short maps.

[valkiriforce]

I believe I have an old 2018 calendar that answers this:

 

 

I would add to it sometimes puzzling progression (though not always) and at least a step above the IWAD level of detail or higher for that classic style. Also traps!

[Kuro_mahoh]

I can't really say either because it's usually inspired by old/new megawads. I try to experiment because I feel my maps are a bit too linear, but I try to make whatever my mind wants me to make.

[Snikle]

Usually its the result of wanting the player to be able to move freely and then realizing the area I built isn't big enough for that and making it work anyway.

[JediMB]

I'm still in the early stages of mapping and trying out different environments and map gimmicks, but I suppose my style includes...

1. Narrative. My maps carefully lead into each other, and I make sure that the environments fit into a larger story I have in mind.
2. I like to figure out fun ways for the player to interact with the environment, often using layers of interactive geometry.
3. I'm very picky with texture choice and positioning. Definitely taking John Romero's mapping rules to heart here.
4. Vanilla. As much as I'd like to play around with colored sectors and unlimited geometry, I think it's good for me to start with vanilla constraints.

 

I definitely need to play more Doom, though. I went more or less straight from not having played the game for decades into mapping for the first time, and there's probably a lot community content I should be experiencing as well.

Edited March 31, 2021 by JediMB

[Biz!]

I just go at it like an idiot!

[tuturbo1991]

My main inspirations are Romero's maps and the works of Jan Van der Veken.

[Stupid Bunny]

I think I unwittingly took a lot of inspiration early on from Drake O'Brien's maps in TNT (Central Processing, Administrative Center and Mount Pain, all maps that are pretty divisive and probably signal that my similar maps would be too), particularly the characteristic of building a sprawling and nonlinear map that starts small and intimate, and works its way to expansive open areas with impressive setpieces, with an emphasis on exploration and establishing a sense of place within the map while also making use of lighting and more abstract textures to give the journey a surreal undertone.  Architecturally I've drawn on Scythe and Equinox more than anything, I like architecture which is large and bold but also geometrically simple and not any more detailed than it needs to be.  I'm not sure what my combat is most like...I try and go for a variety of styles in terms of visuals, combat, progression/layout etc. but I think I generally like a play style that's frenetic but not slaughtery, keeping the player on their toes with lots of traps and turrets and whatnot.

[SpaceTrash]

Bloated and unfocused with questionable encounter design.

 

I mean I've only released one map, but that's how they all feel to me.

 

Also room borders, lots and lots of room borders. Sometimes room borders even have their own borders.

Edited April 14, 2021 by OrbitalSpaceGarbage

[1Destro3456]

56 minutes ago, OrbitalSpaceGarbage said:

Bloated and unfocused with questionable encounter design.

 

I mean I've only released one map, but that's how they all feel to me.

 

Also room borders, lots and lots of room borders. Sometimes room borders even have their own borders.

Soumds like standard first map, mine was like three squared room with doors between them and one lift

[Roofi]

Some tropes :

 

- sector trees

- 3D steptop bridges

-  HR2 tribute maps

- Death-Destiny's encounters design

- multiple keys of the same color

- multiple same weapons at one location

- vanilla/lim-rev mapping

- speedmaps with french puns

- porcupine tree midis

- TOD tropes , especially abstract progression

- boats

- turret monsters

- mostly stock textures

- making demos on my own maps.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Roofi

[KILLA DIO]

my mapping style is being bad at mapping

[Biz!]

Well now after March 31st, I found my mapping style, I follow John Romero's design rules (Half of the Time) then expand the original idea, my original idea is just a simple description of the map then I mess around with UDB, then I add extra details such as corpses and secrets, add ammo near some corpses, and just for fun in some maps on lower skill I replace the enemy with a corpse, then make that corpse set at the difficulty the enemy isn't in ( NOTE: I do not place ammo near these corpses. I usually use textures made by other people on Realm667 and OTEX. I then open up ENDEDIT and make the ENDOOM for fun. I make some fun graphics in Aseprite and replace the original art with the new ones. I then open up WhackED and screw around with some featured, and there we go! My map(set)!

[darkreaver]

My style is open ended maps with lots of interconnected areas. Always some kind of explorative and adventureous feel. I like atmospheric maps and areas, and I never copy paste (with few exceptions of course).
What I dont like about my own style is that I often focus too much on the looks and feel of the areas/maps, so fun gameplay and creative ideas and use of linedef actions dont get enough attention on my side.

[Doom_Dude]

I'm just doin my own thing and hope it works....

[Dubbag]

Techbase. I only make techbase. Also, I only use vanilla textures.

[Spendoragon]

Looking at my practice maps, really cramped spaces and fights.

[Killerratte]

I hate damage floors and only use them when the theme of the map demands it. Also puzzles, fuck puzzles.